People v. . Gaimari

68 N.E. 112, 176 N.Y. 84, 17 N.Y. Crim. 490, 14 Bedell 84, 1903 N.Y. LEXIS 779
CourtNew York Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 6, 1903
StatusPublished
Cited by1,988 cases

This text of 68 N.E. 112 (People v. . Gaimari) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. . Gaimari, 68 N.E. 112, 176 N.Y. 84, 17 N.Y. Crim. 490, 14 Bedell 84, 1903 N.Y. LEXIS 779 (N.Y. 1903).

Opinion

Vann, J.:

At the time of the homicide the defendant lived with his wife in a double tenement house, known as Ho. 56 Roosevelt street, in the city of Hew York, and Josephine Santa Retro, the deceased, lived with her husband in the same-building. The defendant worked in Jersey City, and the deceased was janitress of the building in which both resided. He was thirty-one years old, weighed 130- or 135 pounds, and was not quite as tall as the deceased, who was about forty years of age, five feet and six inches in height, weighed from 175 to 180 pounds, and was a strong, robust, muscular woman. They were acquaintances, more or less intimate, and there was some evidence of jealousy of the deceased on the part of the defendant’s wife and of threats made by the former that she would kill the defendant and his wife, and that these threats had been communicated to him-.

Maggie Santa Retro, a little daughter of the deceased, twelve years of age, testified that a few days before the homicide the defendant came up to the rooms occupied by her father and his family and, knocking at the door, said he was the landlord, Mr. Golden, but the door was not opened, whereupon he broke in the window, “ pulled out a revolver and he pointed it in; my mother ran in the front room door; he said, ‘I was going to leave you dead in Roosevelt street.’ ” Two days before the homicide, a precept issued by a local court, requiring the defendant forthwith to remove from his rooms at Ho. 56 Roosevelt street, or show cause before the court on the 7th of October, 1902, at 10 a. m., why possession of the premises should not be delivered to Barnard Golden, the landlord, was served upon the defendant and was found upon his person immediately after the homicide.

*492 The homicide took place on the 6th of October, 1902, between nine and ten in the morning, at Ho. 56 Roosevelt street. The witnesses who' saw the occurrence, in whole or in part, differ somewhat in their versions, so that a review of the case upon the merits, which is substantially the only duty presented by the record, requires an analysis of the evidence.

William Gibson, a seafaring man, was in front of H01. 56 Roosevelt street, on the opposite sidewalk, between half-past 9 and 10 o’clock on the morning of Monday, October 6, 1902. He saw three women standing in front of Ho. 56, when a man came out of the doorway, whom he identified as the defendant. The defendant “ made a reach, for a woman that was standing in the crowd, and as he did so he drew a revolver out of his hip pocket and fired two shots at her; she was dodging around the other women and started to run into the shoe store right next door to Ho. 56, and as she was going through the door into the place he fired three more. I never heard of the people before. I did not know1 that they were on earth. After the second three shots were fired at the woman as she went into the door of the cobbler’s shop, I went across the street to the sidewalk where she was shot. I seen her lying in there and I started back—lying in the shoemaker’s shop, right by the casing at the windows, the cobbler’s bench there. I seen Mood on the side of her dress.”

Kate Looney, who lived at Ho1. 56 Roosevelt street, was talking to Mrs. Retro as she was cleaning the bells by the front door, when the defendant came down stairs and said to the deceased, You did this,” and she said, I didn’t do it, the landlord did it.” Thereupon the defendant caught her by the throat and commenced to shove her. The witness thought he was fooling until she saw him pull a revolver out of his pocket and fire three shots, when she ran into, the shoemaker’s shop, followed by the deceased, who in turn was followed by the defendant. When the defendant went in he fired another shot, *493 and the witness observed nothing more except that she saw him throw away the revolver. “ He was in the store when, he chucked it away. He chucked it in the back of the store.” The night before, ^this witness heard the defendant say to the deceased, as he passed by her at the front door, “ This is your last night of living.” She further testified that when the defendant “ fired those shots at the housekeeper he was right up at her side; he had his hand on her when he fired them at her in the store.” When sworn before the coroner she did not say that she saw the defendant throw away the revolver.

Angelina Granero lived at Ho. 56 Roosevelt street, and going down stairs to pay her rent to Mrs. Retro saw her cleaning the knobs of the bells by the front door. While she was engaged in paying her rent the defendant came down stairs and said to Mrs. Retro, “ Give us the money,” she replied, “ Ho, I wasn’t going to give you no money; if I’ve got to give you any money call me to the court and don’t talk to me; don’t speak to- me; talk to my husband; I don’t want you to be talking to me.” He asked her for the money again and she said: “Don’t be doing me anything; if you do me anything I will call a policeman and make you arrested.” In the language of the witness: “ From these words they started to be fighting,” and, alarmed, she turned to go when Mrs. Retro caught hold of her dress. She next heard three shots from behind her, the hold on her dress was relaxed and she ran away, but looking back saw the defendant shoot again. By fighting the witness may have meant quarreling, for when asked if the parties were striking at each other she answered: “Ho, sir; fighting, talking.”

Louis Cairia testified that he was a shoemaker and was at work in his shop in. the front part of Ho. 56 Roosevelt street at about 8 or 9 o’clock on the morning of the homicide. He heard a shot and raising his head saw the defendant pursuing the deceased, about three feet from her, and shooting at. her “ in front and in the back, anywhere she turned.” He heard *494 three shots fired outside when he ran out of his shop and the -deceased ran in followed by the defendant with a pistol in his hand. After that the witness heard one or two shots inside. 'The defendant was close to' Mrs; Petro as the witness looked up and saw the second and third shots. At this time he saw the defendant shoot at her in front and when she turned he saw .’him shoot at her back.

Daniel A. Walsh, a collector, was walking down. Roosevelt .-street on the morning in question shortly after half-past nine o’clock. When about opposite Ho. 56 he heard the report of •a revolver, and turning saw a woman running from the hallway followed by a man, whom he identified as the defendant. ,'She was running from him and he had his left hand on her Tight shoulder. He next heard two shots in quick succession when she turned and went into the cobbler’s shop' followed by the defendant, and after that he heard two more shots', making five in all. He went into the shop and saw the woman with “blood coming from her back and a wound in her abdomen. Her apron was burned with powder. He saw a man put his hand on defendant and hold him until he was turned over to the police. A few minutes later the witness picked up a revolver in the air shaft at the back part of the store. E!ach -of the five chambers contained an empty shell, and the revolver was hot when he picked it up. It was identified by several -witnesses as the one with which the shooting was done.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
68 N.E. 112, 176 N.Y. 84, 17 N.Y. Crim. 490, 14 Bedell 84, 1903 N.Y. LEXIS 779, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-gaimari-ny-1903.